For 55 years, California Poets in the Schools has brought the powerful magic of poetry creation and performance to over one million students.  Our work is more important than ever!  Studies show that student involvement in the arts is linked to higher academic performance, increased standardized test scores, greater involvement in community service and lower dropout rates.  Creativity is the #1 desired skill in today's job market.  Poetry instruction builds empathy and a sense of belonging in the classroom setting.  Poetry and the arts can be a powerful, healing tool for schools and communities recovering from natural disasters and other traumas such as gun violence. 

This weekend conference is open to the public and geared towards literary teaching artists (for all audiences), classroom educators, poets, MFA candidates and more.  Content will be engaging for those brand new to teaching the literary arts and to the "old hats" among us.

At this Symposium, workshops will be geared towards the theme of Creativity for Change.  How can poetry in the classroom be a transformational tool for positive change?  How can our lesson plans respond swiftly with resilience and flexibility to the most pressing issues of our time?  How do we need to change and grow ourselves in order to best serve our communities? We will learn from experts in our midst and pool our best practices for a weekend of learning, networking, community-building, poetry readings and some good old-fashioned fun.

Juan Felipe Herrera will join us as our creative writing workshop leader, keynote reader and presenter.  In 2015 Juan Felipe Herrera was appointed the 21st United States Poet Laureate, the first Mexican American to hold the position. Herrera grew up in California as the son to migrant farmers, which he has commented strongly shaped much of his work. A Washington Post article tells the story that “As a child, Herrera learned to love poetry by singing about the Mexican Revolution with his mother, a migrant farmworker in California. Inspired by her spirit, he has spent his life crossing borders, erasing boundaries and expanding the American chorus.”

Additional workshops/panels will include (Check back for more details and more workshops):

Healing Informed Pedagogy: the connection between the arts, neurons, and cognitive processing

Mariah Rankine-Landers

Are you wanting to know more about how trauma affects the brain’s capacity for learning? Are you curious to understand the connection between the arts, neurons, and cognitive processing? Healing Informed Pedagogy also known as Trauma Informed Pedagogy asks educators to value the process that is needed when students come to us with traumatic experiences.  This workshop will unfold the process and knowledge that is needed to support and care for students who carry exhaustive life experiences such as racial trauma, environmental crisis, immigration, poverty, medical conditions, etc. 

This session will share with you the practical and impractical steps that are needed to activate, amplify and uplift learning that is healing informed through artistic thinking, practices and values. Mariah will explain how the brain processes information with the right conditions and what happens under duress.  

Mariah Rankine-Landers leads educators to understand and implement creative inquiry processes leading towards whole school changes in culture, healing informed practices, and racial and social justice. Mariah is dedicated to uplifting the value of love and liberation in the design of teaching and learning as creative forces for change. 

Establishing a Youth Poet Laureate in Your County 

Fernando Albert Salinas - CalPoets' Area Coordinator for Ventura County

This workshop will offer a step-by-step guide to begin a Youth Poet Laureate program in your county and how to align with the Youth Poet Laureate nationwide movement.

Speak On It: Contemporary Spoken Word and Performance Poetry Resources for Your Residency 

Brennan DeFrisco - CalPoets' Area Coordinator for Contra Costa County

Seminar/panel on spoken word poetics, teaching resources, performance craft, cultural relevancy, and breaking the page vs. stage binary. Spoken word has grown exponentially in popularity in classrooms and across the country. Expand your lesson plan with one of the most relevant literary genres young poets are engaging with today.

Video Poetry Using Adobe Spark 

Blake More - CalPoets' Area Coordinator for Mendocino County

Using Adobe’s online program Adobe Spark, Blake More will show poet teachers an innovative, easy way to engage technology in their classrooms. Adobe Spark offers a multidisciplinary approach to writing, word processing, audio recording, spoken word, and visual illustration. This workshop shows teachers how to take original poems to the next level of participation, by turning these original pieces into video poems.

Poetry-based Expressive Arts Programming for People with Cognitive Challenges 

Arlyn Miller - Chair of CalPoets Advisory Council

In this hands-on workshop we’ll explore how poetry-based expressive writing can be transformational for (primarily adult) people with epilepsy and other cognitive challenges. I’ll share how working in tandem with art therapists and art educators may help us adapt and grow our professional practices in order to best serve vulnerable and underserved constituencies. Workshop participants will gain inspiration and tools to solicit work of this nature and to effectively (co)facilitate like workshops.

Bookmaking - Ways to Create the Anthology and Your Own Book 

Daryl Chinn - CalPoets' Board President Emeritus and Poet Teacher 

We will make mock-up sample books in at least two forms as a way to teach students and ourselves about assembling our own classroom anthologies and handmade books. We hope to inspire and inform students and poet teachers about owning the process of creating our own work from beginning to end.

Classroom Management for Teaching Artists – When Being the Special Teacher Is Not Enough to Conduct an Effective Lesson 

Jackie Hallerberg - CalPoets' Board Secretary and Poet-Teacher

Elements of a classroom management system form an eco-system and when one element goes awry, all of them do. Behavior is only one element. Discover the other elements and how to anticipate and remove obstacles to delivering a great lesson!

Literary Hearses & Fresh Verses: Engaging The New Youth Voice 

Tama Brisbane, CalPoets Area Coordinator for Stanislaus and San Joaquin Counties

Written, spoken, slammed, mixed and remixed, poetry is a marvelous vehicle for young voices. However, if we’re still delivering this primary art form in containers on the verge of becoming caskets, our audiences are DOA. From the unspoken metrics of artistic and cultural respect to unconventional applications of digital media, this workshop will explore ways of putting the “lit” back into literacy.

This workshop list is incomplete, and will continue to grow as details are confirmed...

Please join us August 2nd-4th at St. Francis Retreat Center in San Juan Bautista.  Online registration is now open.  Registration closes July 22nd.  Early registration is recommended. 

Retreat schedule (subject to minor changes):

Friday: 

2pm-4pm:  Creative Writing Workshop with Juan Felipe Herrera

5pm-6pm:  Networking hour

6pm-6:45pm:  Dinner

7:00pm - drive to El Teatro Campesino (transportation provided for those in want/need)

7:30pm-8:15pm:  Reading with Juan Felipe Herrera

8:15pm-9:00:  Book signing with Juan Felipe Herrera

9:00: Return to Saint Francis Retreat Center (transportation provided for those in want/need)

Saturday:

8am-9am:  breakfast

9am-9:30am:  Keynote Address with Juan Felipe Herrera

9:30am-12:00am:  (All group) Mariah Rankine-Landers: Healing Informed Pedagogy: the connection between the arts, neurons, and cognitive processing

12pm-1:15pm:  lunch

1:15pm-2:45pm:  workshops - your choice

3pm-4:45pm:  workshops - your choice

5pm-6pm:  networking hour or 

6pm-7pm:  dinner

7:30pm-9:30pm:  Open mic reading

Sunday:

8:00am-9:00am:  breakfast

9am-10:15am:  workshops - your choice

10:30am-12pm:  all group closing

12pm-1pm:  lunch

COST & DISCOUNTS

It is our hope that cost will not be a barrier for anyone who wants to attend the 2019 symposium.  If you qualify for a discount, online registration may not be possible.  Please click here to print a hard copy of the payment form and mail your check or credit card information to:  California Poets in the Schools, PO Box 1328, Santa Rosa, CA 05402

• We will be offering scholarships to emerging teaching-artists who have been working with CalPoets for five years or less.  Please click here to fill out an emerging Poet-Teacher scholarship application.  
• Workshop presenters will receive a $100 discount. 
• There is an Area Coordinator discount of $100.  
• We will offer multiple work-trade opportunities to active Poet-Teachers and Area Coordinators.  Please click here to fill out a work-trade application.

We have created various pricing options including day use and overnight, in order to facilitate as many people joining us as possible. Please note that the Friday workshop with Juan Felipe Herrera will need to be added on to most packages. While there is no camping option available at St. Francis Retreat Center, there is a campground "just down the hill" with drive-in and tenting options starting at $16.80/night.  Mission Farm RV Park, 400 San Juan Hollister Rd, San Juan Bautista, California 95045, Phone: (831) 623-4456.  Reservations recommended.  CalPoets will not be managing reservations for any offsite accommodations. 

SPONSOR A POET TO ATTEND: We have launched a fundraising campaign with the goal of raising $5,000 in order to offset the cost of attendance for up to 20 Poet-Teachers.  All donations are very much appreciated.  You can donate below by choosing one or multiple tickets labeled "SPONSOR A POET TO ATTEND."  (Choose more than one ticket to donate in multiples of $25.)  Alternatively, join our Facebook giving campaign by clicking here, or through PayPal on our website  by clicking here.  THANK YOU.

MORE DETAILS: 

Cancellation Policy: CalPoets will offer a full refund, minus a $25 processing fee for all cancellations made prior to July 15th.  After July 15th, no refunds will be issued.  

For more information, please contact Meg Hamill, Executive Director - (415) 221-4201, meg@cpits.org  For more information about the St. Francis Retreat Center, please click here.  Thanks for directing all questions regarding the center to Meg Hamill (contact above).  Please reserve all rooms through California Poets in the Schools.